


A Good Man and a Villain

by navaan



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Beauty and the Beast Elements, Enemies to Friends (to Lovers?), Getting to Know Each Other, Identity Reveal, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mouth-to-Mouth, Secret Identity, Sort of Villain Tony Stark, Villains to Heroes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-11
Updated: 2018-04-11
Packaged: 2019-04-21 14:37:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14287077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: They had fought each other a couple of times. Iron Man was known to steal high-tech weapons whenever the opportunity arose and since he'd been take to this hidden fortress on an island he had seen glimpses of a technological armory that could be used for world destruction.Why then had Iron Man never really made a move against the Avengers?





	A Good Man and a Villain

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fill for the “Beauty and the Beast” square on my Stony Fairy tale Bingo. Also a fill for my Stony bingo card, "Questionable Decision Making Process". First published [here.](https://navaan.dreamwidth.org/601142.html)

“I'll come with you, if you give the Avengers what they need,” Captain America said and Iron Man froze in his tracks. “They'll bring back your precious time platform after they've saved our friend Janet. I'll be your hostage until they do. That’s an acceptable deal?”

The golden armored figure turned around slowly and blue eyes stared at him from behind the rectangular eye slits. “You need it that badly?”

“Janet is… The Wasp is lost in time, because of me. Kang only came…” He stopped his words. Kang had come after Captain America, who in his opinion had no place being in this time and place. Sometimes Steve still felt like that too. What was he doing here. But Iron Man was not the person to tell all this too. Poor Janet was one of the few people Steve really opened up to. “Listen,” he said to Iron Man, “she’s lost. We need the time platform. Give it to us and we’ll give it back. No questions asked.”

“And you’ll stay until your Avenger friends do?” Iron Man sounded gruff and disbelieving behind his metal faceplate. Right now, standing half in the shadows, he looked even more like a golden monster than he usually did.

“Yes,” he said tensely. He wanted to help Janet and fast and he had no time for a criminal making fun of him.

“Alright,” Iron Man agreed with the slightest shrug of his hulking shoulder and held out his hand for Steve to take. “You have a deal, Captain.”

Startled by the offered hand Steve reached out to take it. The rock hard and lifeless fingers in his hand felt strange, but Iron Man shook his hand, firm but gently, aware of the power in his own suit of armor.. Steve, throat suddenly dry, was a little afraid he’d agreed to something that would play into the man’s hands. He’d agreed too easily to Steve’s suggestion, when Steve had expected he would need to convince him..

But thus began his stay with one of the world's most dangerous villains.

* * *

For the third day in a row he sat in the library alone and enjoyed the sun streaming in from the windows. He hadn't seen a screw of Iron Man for hours, but now he heard the heavy footsteps of the armor. 

“Do you ever step out of that thing?” he asked when the gold heap of metal appeared in the doorway and blocked it completely. 

The man laughed, voice distorted by the mask. “You wouldn't want me too, believe me.”

Carefully, Steve looked over the golden armor, noticed for the second time since staying here that Iron Man hid startling blue eyes behind the slits of that mask. It was hard to see why someone with those eyes would have to hide himself. Perhaps an accident?

“I make you uncomfortable,” Iron Man said and shrugged. He didn’t seem to take it personally. “I'll go. I only wanted to see if there was anything you needed.” And without another word the heavy armor turned to vanish loudly back into the halway..

“Wait...” Steve called. “I... Could use some company.” He hated being alone back in the Avengers HQ and sitting around only invited brooding, he told himself. He wasn’t _looking_ to spend more time with the criminal holding him here.

“Company,” the man behind the golden mask repeated like the concept was foreign to him. 

But he stayed.

They had fought each other a couple of times before, but Steve had never really _spent time with him_. Iron Man was known to steal high-tech weapons whenever the opportunity arose and since he'd been taken to this hidden fortress on an island he had seen glimpses of a technological armory that could be used for world destruction if he man ever set his mind to it..

Why then had Iron Man never really made a move against the Avengers? He only fought them when they intervened in his heists.

And more importantly why had he allowed Steve to see it?

“Hank says that you target technology that was patented by Stark Industries. Is it true then? Did you kill Tony Stark?”

“Is that the kind of small talk people have in polite company these days?” He was surprised that Iron Man had taken up a spot in an armchair that was apparently reinforced to carry his weight.

Does he sit in the library often? In that thing?

“I'm old fashioned,” Steve said, “and I don't know yet if I'm in _polite_ company.”

Iron Man nodded as if that was a valid point, then said gravely: “No, I didn't kill Tony Stark. His own stupidity killed him.”

So he knew what had happened to Stark? That was interesting. He needed to tell Jan about it. She had never stopped wondering about what had happened to he young industrialist and inventor she’d known.

* * *

Over the course of days that Steve spent in the “Iron fortress” Steve found to his own surprise that he quite enjoyed the company of the villain. They had interesting debates in the library and shared quiet moments together during breakfast hours.

He was nearly disappointed when on the 5th day Thor and Hank brought back the time platform, ready to free Steve from a dungeon. They were as surprised as Steve had been that he wasn’t kept in a prison cell.

“He promised to stay put,” Iron Man explained with that hint of a shrug.

“And apparently the word of Captain America is good with criminals, too?” Hank asked.

Steve laughed, glad to get back to the action. But before he left, he said: “You don't have to steal.”

“I have my own reasons for what I'm doing, Captain. Now enjoy your return to freedom.”

* * *

They met again in a pinch. They were trapped together in a cell on a Skrull ship and Steve feared this would be the end of the line. The only light in the small room came from the strange rose shaped crest in the golden armor's chest.

“I never asked what this is,” Steve said and reached out a hand to touch it. “The crest? What does it mean?” 

Iron Man didn't move for a long, long moment, then he made a humming sound. “It's a power source. We'll use it to get out of here.”

And so they did. He watched Iron Man work, watched him pull of a heavy metal glove even to use his own fingers. Why was it surprising that he had the hands of a pianist? Nimble and gentle? Long fingered and elegant?

The power source did its job.

Steve watched it with a thoughtful frown and committed all details of this encounter to memory.

* * *

In the middle of another Skrull invasion he found Iron Man in the cellar of the old Stark mansion.

“Iron Man!” he shouted. “We need it! The barrier around New York will fall. Give me the crest. I swear I'll bring it back.”

He knew the thief didn't owe him anything and for the longest time the armor stood here, eerily silent and still. 

“New York will be destroyed if we can't keep up the barrier,” he implored. He knew the man under all that metal had his heart in the right place. He'd helped them often and he always made sure no innocents were hurt in his attacks on tech companies, even though recently he had moved on from stealing tech to blowing up whole factories. Steve wanted to believe that there truly was a good man hidden in all that golden metal - not only because he had started to like him.

“Give it to me, please. You know you can trust me.”

With the heavy sigh of hydraulics moving the armor turned to face him fully. 

Then an armored hand pulled the crest from the chest plate leaving a gaping hole behind.

Steve blinked, surprised that Iron Man didn't even make demands, before offering it to him. 

“It's an arc reactor. And I need it back. You have two hours. Go now and save your friends, save New York, but come back here if you can. You have to promise. Your promise is good enough, but I need it.”

The promise came easily to him and he took the arc reactor with a final rushed word of thanks. He had come to like Iron Man much more than he could have imagined. He wouldn't disappoint him. 

One day he hoped they could fight side by side always.

He just needed to help the man to see the error of his ways. Then they could be friends. 

They kind of were friends already…

Right now was no time to ponder that thought.

* * *

Steve returned much later than he thought.

“Iron Man?”

The armor wasn't moving and with some trepidation he realized that nobody was in it. His heart started thumping hard in his chest. Was Iron Man gone? Would he really leave his armor?

He found the collapsed pilot – a piece of the armor's shiny golden chestplate still strapped around him. It was plugged into a wall socket and the man was barely breathing. He checked over the sweaty face of a handsome man with dark black hair and a perfectly groomed beard. 

It triggered a memory, but he wasn't sure how to place it.

“Iron Man?” He gathered him up, held him against his chest and lowered an ear to his mouth to check for breathing. He couldn’t feel a faint breath there.

“Iron Man?” he tried again.

No reply.

Letting the unconscious body slip back onto the ground, he leaned down to press his lips to to Iron Man’s, pushed air into his lungs. Nothing happened.

Frantically he tried to jump start his heart.

Leaned down again, pressed more air into his lungs, their lips touching intimately.

His heart was gripped by fear when nothing happened. But just then he felt the flutter of eyelashes against his cheek and the lips moved into an unconscious kiss. Steve froze, unable to move back. Then the man groaned beneath him and he tried to scramble back. When his eyes opened Steve recognized those. He had seen them countless times watching him from behind the golden mask.

This really was Iron Man. Why had he hidden in the armor?

“Power went out,” he groaned. “Did you kiss me?”

He flushed. “Mouth-to-mouth. You were unconscious. Yes, there was an outage... I brought your...”

And suddenly it made sense. The cord! It led right to the hole where the crest belonged.

“Let me.” He helped Iron Man to put it back into place. “You gave it to me, although it keeps you alive. What kind of mad man does that?”

The man let his whole weight sag against Steve's chest when power flooded back into the chest piece. It seemed to pain him, but finally he could breathe easier. “I don’t mind the… mouth-to-mouth actually. First human contact I had in a while. It's nice to meet you for real, Captain America.” Slowly and as if he wasn’t sure he would come to regret it, he added: “I'm Tony. And I really wanted to meet you one day. For real. Just...”

That finally made the memory of the handsome face fall into place. He’d seen pictures of it. Seen a photograph in Janet’s study, footage on the news...

“Tony Stark!” Suddenly it all made sense – why Iron Man had turned up when the man had apparently been killed, why he went after Stark tech, why he gathered Stark inventions and then never used them as weapons. “You're mad,” he repeated and then smothered him in a real embrace. “But you're a good man Tony Stark.”

And he wouldn’t let him slip back into the lonely life of Iron Man. Not after this.

“You’ll have to meet the Avengers. They’ll want to thank you, too. And you need to get your strength up before you get back in that thing.”

Tony made a non-committal sound. “You know my secrets now. How can I refuse?” His face was strained though and his hand touched the chestplate in an unconscious show of nervousness.

Trying to calm his worries, Steve let his fingers streak through the sweaty black hair and pulled him closer. He really wanted to know all about the armor, about Iron Man, about Tony. But right now he didn’t want to pry. One day Tony would be ready to tell him. “Don’t worry. All your secrets are safe with me, I promise.”

And again it seemed his promise was enough for Tony.

**Author's Note:**

> You can follow me for fic updates on [tumblr](https://navaanwrites.tumblr.com/) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/navaanwrites). This fic has a post on the tumblr [here](https://navaanwrites.tumblr.com/post/172831071179/a-good-man-and-a-villain-navaan-marvel-616) in case you want to like or share it. It also has a page on my [Dreamwidth](https://navaan.dreamwidth.org/601142.html).


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